


day 38

by sanvitheartificer



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Balance - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Getting to live a life with normal things, Grocery Shopping, Peripheral Blupjeans, and also my love of sprinting through grocery stores with carts, based on my desire to just write lup getting to be happy in and of herself, i'm an adult and no one can stop me!!!, joy, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 16:12:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19338019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanvitheartificer/pseuds/sanvitheartificer
Summary: Lup goes grocery shopping.





	day 38

“Babe, I'm going grocery shopping. You want anything?”

Barry poked his head out of the lab. “Ice cream?” he said, hopefully.

Lup raised an eyebrow. “You know I can't do that for you.”

He stuck out his bottom lip, pulled his goggles up, and looked at her for a solid five seconds.

Gods, her husband was _unbearably_ cute. “Okay, _fine_! But I'm getting you dairy-free shit and/or sorbet, mark my worms!”

“That's fine!” he sang, pulling his goggles back on. His hair got tangled in them, obviously, and Lup leaned against the doorway and watched him disentangle his hair from the goggles. She felt the solid wood holding her up, and her hair tickling the back of her neck, and her soft, soft T-shirt, and basked.

“I thought you said you were going to shop,” Barry said, a minute later, eyes still on his goggles.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm going!” Lup said. She grabbed the shopping bags and a sunhat and traipsed out the door.   
  
It was a long hike to the grocery store, and it'd be longer with groceries, but Lup figured she could handle it. She'd Blink back or something; no biggie. Wasn't like she was using the spell slots for anything else!

And it was _gorgeous_ out here. Their house was on a hill near the Sword Mountains, so she could see the valley stretched out in front of her. On the horizon, there were little scudded clouds, and huge, towering ones floated above her, providing just enough shade to make the temperature perfect.

As she crested the last hill, Lup paused for a second. The wind was at her back, and the winding dirt path was clear. Fantasy Target's billboard beckoned.

Oh, why not? She sprinted down the hill as fast as she could manage, dress and bags streaming behind her. The breath filled her lungs easy and Lup laughed, pure exhilaration. It was like a hundred nights on the Starblaster, badgering Davenport into a joy ride, and it was like diving towards the Hunger, flame streaming around her, and it wasn't any of those things. It was now, and she was shopping for groceries in the world she'd live in for the rest of her life, and she could do _anything she wanted_.

Lup careened into the parking lot, narrowly avoiding a horse, and snagged a cart without breaking her stride. Maybe the adult, mature thing to do would be to walk at a reasonable pace through the aisles.

But, well, Lup'd never claimed to be any of all _that_. She hung a hard left, cart wheels screeching, and then stood on the cart wheel and cruised down the candy aisle, laughing like the naiads of world 34.

She slowed to a walk right before she ran into the back wall, and threw a few zucchini into the cart.

She was grabbing a pint of sorbet when a voice interrupted.

“Are you Miss Lup?”

Lup crouched to get eye-to-eye with the tiny orcish child. “That's cha'girl,” she said cheerfully, tucking a wayward curl behind her ear.

The orcish kid edged behind her parent's skirt. “Uh,” she squeaked.

The parent smiled. “Go on, ask, Jute.”

“How'd you get so brave?” the kid blurted. “You fought the Hunger for a _hundred years_!”

Lup propped up her chin on her hand. “Welllll, that's a good question, kiddo! Don't tell your parent,” she widened her eyes and held a finger to her lips, “but I got brave running in grocery stores. _What if they kick me out_?”

Jute giggled, and Lup smiled. “Forreal though, I learned to be brave to protect beautiful things. Someone you love, or the sun on your shoulders, or a really good meal. The Story maybe didn't tell you this, but I was always scared when I went out and fought the Hunger.”

The kid looked skeptical, and Lup rocked back on her heels, feigning hurt. “You don't believe me?”

“N-no!” Jute exclaimed, grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“Well, it's true. But... I loved more than I was scared.” Lup magicked up a marble with a flower from a distant world. “Here. This means love, okay? Keep it when you need to feel brave.”

“Thanks, Miss Lup,” Jute said, eyes wide, looking up at her parent as if to check that it was okay.

“You really don't have to – you've done so much for us already,” the older orc said. The look in their eyes was gentle, though, and Lup straightened.

“It's my pleasure,” she said, grinning. And it really was. This little kid was going to get to grow up, and get old, and she was never going to have to drown in the Hunger.

She handed the marble to Jute, who took it with utmost care. “Thanks,” she whispered.

“Thank _you_ ,” said Lup, and cart surfed to the checkout lane.

 

 

 


End file.
